Leone's Story
by Alli67
Summary: The life story of a young eevee living in the wild. He has to deal with "school", evolution, girls, and growing up. Lots of adventure, drama, romance and everything else.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Pokemon. I wish I did…**

**Hey, Alli here! This is my first story, so I'd really appreciate reviews! I don't mind criticism either. It helps improve my writing. Anyway, the story might be a tiny bit confusing at the start, but you'll understand it eventually. Also, the rating may change. Thanks for taking the time to read my story!**

**Prologue**

The young flareon's tail glowed dimly in the hollow where she nursed her newborn son. She pitied him; he'd have to grow up without a father. She couldn't believe she'd trusted him. She was young and inexperienced. She had let her feelings control her, failing to realize he didn't really care about her, just what she could offer him. And that was why she now had a baby eevee nuzzled up against her. She didn't understand why so many males where like that. So many of them were deadbeats. They left many females to raise a litter alone. Right at that moment, she decided she would never let her new son be like that. She would raise him right so that he would never get some poor girl pregnant and then run off. She loved her new child. It wasn't his fault his father had gotten her knocked up then left. And she knew just what to name him. Leone.

**I hope you like it so far! I promise the next chapter will be much longer and more cheerful. It'll be from Leone's point of view for the rest of the story. Please review!**


	2. Breakfast and Meeting the Family

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. I'm working on it though!**

"Leone," my mother says from the next room. "It's time for breakfast."

"Coming, Mom," I answer. "What's for breakfast?" I ask, walking into the eating room.

"Starly, bidoof, roots, and berries," she says proudly.

"Wow! What's the occasion?" I ask. We don't usually have food like this for breakfast.

"Oh, nothing," she says with a twinkle in her eye. "I was just lucky in hunting today."

I don't quite believe her, but decide not to push it. I walk over to the pile of food, choose a starly and tear into it eagerly. Starly is my favorite. But, Mom always says never to go near them because they can be dangerous.

"Leone, eat some roots," my mom says. "They're good for you."

"I _hate _roots," I say for the millionth time.

She sighs. "Raina! Are you coming?" she calls.

"Here Mommy!" Raina says, bouncing into the room. "Ooh, berries! My fave!" she exclaims, popping a few in her mouth.

Raina is my favorite little sister. Of course, I only have one, but still. She is so perfect. She's young and sweet and cute. I love her more than anything. Mom tells me we are lucky to have her, since most eevees are male. She says only one in eight eevees are female. I've always thought that was funny, since I'm the only male in the family.

Our little family lives in a den dug in the ground, not too far from a river. The weather is always perfect here. It's always warm and sunny, except in the winter when it gets just cold enough so the snow wouldn't melt. In the summer, there's always lush green grass that me and Raina can play in. We have a nice big den, too. We each have a room, and we have a room to eat in too. Plus, an extra room for anything else. I know we've got it a lot better than lots of other eevees. I have a great life.

The only thing missing is my dad. I know my dad left before I was born. My mom doesn't like to talk about him. But, she did tell me he was a deadbeat and she doesn't want me to ever be like him. She also told me he was an umbreon. That's why I still can't stand umbreons. I don't want to be like him. I hate him. I'll always be loyal and stay with my mate. Raina's dad was great though. At first, it was really hard for my mom to trust him and open up to him, because of her bad experience with my dad. But eventually, she let her walls come down and they became mates.

Unlike my dad, Marco didn't leave when he found out my mom was pregnant with Raina. I remember watching them croon over their little eevee together, fire and ice. This was all a long time ago, when I was little. It was like I was finally getting a real family. But of course, it didn't last. When Raina was still a kit, only three weeks old, he was out looking for food and he found a nest of starly eggs. But as he was taking them, a large mother staraptor swooped down and killed him. I don't even think Raina remembers him. She claims she remembers a cold, yet somehow still comforting, presence in her dreams sometimes. I think she just wants to believe that, though.

I still like our little family, though. Mom is big and warm and motherly. Plus, you can always tell her emotions through her tail. When she is happy or angry, her tail burns brightly. When she is calm, it glows dimly. If she is unhappy or scared, it goes out completely. Most flareons don't have tails like that. It's kind of cool.

And Raina is perfect. She's my entire world. When she was born, I promised to always look after her. I'll never let anything happen to her.

**Hope you liked this chapter! If you notice the grammar isn't great and it sounds childish, it's supposed to be like that. As Leone gets older, that'll go away. But, if you see a spelling or punctuation error, tell me and I'll correct it. Thanks! R & R.**


	3. Travels and Rivers

**Disclaimer: Still don't own pokemon…**

"Mommy! Tell us where we're going!" Raina whined.

Mom is taking us somewhere, but she won't tell us where. We just left. Mom tells us it's going to take at least a day. She says we're going to one of the most important events in our lives. Maybe even the most important one ever. So far, we've only been traveling through tall grass, but Mom says we have to go a long way and we'll have to cross a river.

I look over at Raina. "This is going to be so much fun," I say.

"I guess so," she says. "But, I just wish she would tell us where we're going."

"Raina! It's a surprise! Give it up!" Mom says exasperatedly.

"I knew there was a reason for the fancy breakfast!" I say, grinning at Mom.

After half an hour of walking and listening to Raina gripe about not knowing where we're going, we finally reach the river Mom told us about.

"Oh no!" Mom says. "Kora told me there was a bridge on this river. What will we do now?"

"We could swim, Mommy," Raina suggests.

"You two have never been swimming before in your lives. You would drown," she says. "And anyway, I'm a flareon. I can't swim in rivers. I would die."

It might seem strange that we live right next to a river, yet we've never been swimming, but Mom would never let us swim in the river, because she says the current is too strong and there are carvanha in it.

"I wanna try swimming, Mommy," Raina begs. "It looks like so much fun!"

Suddenly, before Mom can protest, Raina runs over to the river and jumps in. There's a splash and Raina's laughing. She's swimming around in the water like a little Goldeen.

"Raina! I told you not to get in!" Mom says angrily.

"But Mommy, look! I'm swimming! The water feels great!"

"I don't care! Just get out!"

Dutifully, Raina swims over to the edge and gets out. On the other side.

"There Mommy, I'm out," she says with just a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Raina," I call. "What are you doing?"

"Well, we all have to get across right? So why not get out on this side if I can?" Raina asks.

Truthfully, I think she's right. It would be stupid for her to come back to this side, if she can get out on the other one.

"Well, fine," my mom finally gives in. Then, turning to me, "But how will we get across?"

"Hey! Look!" Raina says, turning downriver.

When I look, I see a reddish, blackish fish with white fins swimming down the river.

"Excuse me! Sir?" Mom says.

The seaking looks up. "Hmm?"

"We were wondering… my son and I need to get across the river, but we can't swim. Do you think you could take us across?"

"Oh! Of course! Certainly!" the seaking says enthusiastically. "You can ride across on my back. By the way, I'm Sam."

He turns around to let us climb on. Mom gets on first, carefully making sure not to touch the water. I can tell she's scared. So am I. It wouldn't matter if I fell off, because the seaking could grab me. But, if my mom fell off, she'd die. After she's on, I climb on too. The seaking feels strange and scaly under my paws. As I'm getting on, I slip, but the seaking catches me with his fin.

"Whoa, thanks Mr. Seaking," I say.

"Please, call me Sam," he responds.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Mom says politely. "My name is Fiona and this is my son, Leone."

"Is that your daughter over there, too?"

"Unless I disinherit her, yes," Mom says pointedly, making sure Raina hears her.

Raina just chuckles and rolls her eyes.

"Raina swam across without permission," Mom informs the seaking.

"She'll grow up to be a big strong vaporeon, I'm sure. Why, she even has the word rain in her name!" The seaking laughs.

"Hey, I never even noticed that," Mom says. "Rain-a. That's funny. Did you ever notice that Leone?"

"No, Mom, I didn't," I say.

"Even I didn't notice it!" Raina calls from across the river.

"You be quiet! I'm still mad at you!" Mom yells, but I don't think she's really mad.

"You must be very observant, Mr. Seaking. None of us had noticed that and you noticed it right away," I say.

"Why, thank you, Leone. And you can call me Sam," he responds. "So where are you three heading to?

"Mom still hasn't told us, Mr. Seaking. It's a big surprise. She says she'll tell us when we're almost there."

Mr. Seaking laughs a bubbly chuckle. "Ha! I know where you're going. I've heard of that place."

"Will you tell us Mr. Seaking?" Raina asks hopefully.

"Sorry, kids. That's for your mother to tell you, not me. Besides, I don't know much about it, anyway."

We're almost to the other side of the river, maybe five feet away, where Raina's waiting for us. It's really cramped on the Seaking's back with my mom, so I shift a little, to get more room. But, the Seaking is slippery and I fall off of him and into the river!

I quickly sink deep into the depths of the river. The river's deeper than it looks. I struggle and try to swim my way back up, but I'd never swum before, and, unlike Raina, I'm not a natural. I only manage to push myself further down. I'm quickly running out of air. My lungs are constricting and starting to burn. I sink deeper and deeper. Soon, I can only see distant shards of light. Spots start to dance in front of my eyes. I was going to die down here. Why didn't Mr. Seaking rescue me? I would never see the sun again. I would never taste another starly. I would never know where Mom was taking us. I would never again hear my mom sing us a lullaby while lying on a soft bed of starly down. I would never snuggle with Raina again. I was going to die. Slowly, I stop struggling and go limp. My vision clouds. My lungs are on fire. Then, everything goes black.

**Alli: Sorry about the really long wait. I kind of lost interest in the story for a while, but I'm back. Also, sorry about the confusing name changes, but it won't change anymore.**


	4. Rescues and Partings

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it again? *****Sigh***** Fine, I don't own pokemon. Now I feel sad.**

I wake up coughing and spluttering.

"Just cough up all the water, Leone," Mom says soothingly. "You'll be okay."

My eyes flutter open. The world gradually comes into focus. The dimness fades away. Oh, gosh! I feel _awful_! I sit up and open my eyes all the way. And then I throw up. Several times. I'll spare you the details, but it wasn't pretty. At the end, there was absolutely nothing in my stomach.

"Is he okay, Mommy?" Raina asks, worried.

"Don't worry, Raina. He's fine," she says. I think she's trying to sound confident and reassuring, but it came out a little uncertain.

I'm not sure either. Am I fine? I remember fire in my lungs and inky blackness. The blackness is gone, but I still feel a little ember burning in my lungs. Not nearly as bad as before, though. I cough and cough to try to dislodge the ember. I can't get enough air. But, I cough and cough some more and eventually feel unobstructed air getting to my lungs. I can finally breathe easily. I take such a deep breath I almost throw up again. Finally, I'm able to speak.

I manage a raspy, "What happened?"

"You slipped," Mom answers. "You fell off of Sam. He couldn't go under and rescue you, because he had me on his back. He rushed to let me off, but he couldn't go too fast, because he didn't want me to fall of too. But then, Raina jumped in to save you. I don't know how she found you at the bottom of the river. I couldn't even see you! Somehow, she swam all the way down and dragged you out. You owe her your life."

"Thanks, Raina," I smile at her.

"No problem, big brother." She smiles back at me with teary eyes.

It's a bit weird, being saved by her. I've always wanted to protect _her_ and save _her_. Makes me feel like a failure of an older brother. Well, anyway, I feel better, so I slowly get to my feet.

"Should we keep going?" I ask.

"Do you feel well enough?" Mom asks. I nod. "Well then, let's go!" she says.

"Bye, Sam. Thank you for taking us across the river," she says. Raina says bye and thank you too.

"Bye, Mr. Seaking. Thanks," I say.

"Bye Fiona. Bye Raina. Bye Mr. Eevee," he says jokingly. "Maybe, I'll see you guys again someday."

"Maybe," Mom says.

**Sorry this chapter was so short. The chapters are a bit inconsistent. Some of them are shorter and some longer. I'll update soon (I hope)! -Alli**


	5. Revealings and Forests

**Disclaimer: Yes, I do own pokemon. Oh come on, can't I just have this one moment? All right, fine. I don't own pokemon. You're so mean...**

It was nearing twilight as we set out again. I suddenly remember something.

"Hey, Mom. Earlier, Mr. Seaking said something about Raina growing up to be 'a big strong vaporeon'. What's a vaporeon?" I ask.

Then, Raina says, "And you said something about 'Kora' telling you there was a bridge on the river. Who's Kora?"

"Weren't you going to tell us where we're going, too?" I remind her.

"Alright, alright! I'll tell you the whole story," she says. "So, do you know why I'm red and you two are brown?"

Honestly, I had never really thought about it. I always just assumed we would turn that color when we grew up. I look at Mom. She's much bigger than Raina and me. She has short, soft, red fur on her body. Around her neck and shoulders, she has a collar of thick, fluffy, golden fur. She has the same fur in a raindrop shape on top of her head and her tail is made up of it. But, her tail flickers, waves, and burns like a flame to reflect her emotions. She has a large, chubby body and short, stubby legs. She has long pointy ears and small black eyes. Her nose is small and round and she has a cheery smile. I compare her to Raina, small and graceful. Raina is a tiny little thing. Soft, silky, chocolate brown fur covers her body. She has a collar of cream-colored fluffy fur around her neck and on the tip of her tail. Her eyes are shaped like upright, rounded diamonds, narrow at each end. They're a pretty chocolate brown, like her fur. She doesn't look much like Mom at all. I wonder what I look like. I mean, I'd seen my reflection in the river near our home, but it was fast flowing and I always looked really blurry. All I know about how I look is my colors. I don't have very similar colors to Raina's and they're not at all like Mom's. Raina's fur is chocolate and mine is chestnut. Her collar is cream and mine is tan. Her eyes are brown and mine are emerald green. I realize we would have to change a lot to look like Mom.

"Well, you two, there's something called evolution," Mom tells us. "You two love to eat starlys, right? And you're afraid of staravias, right? Well, staravias are just starlys that have evolved twice. Evolution is where pokemon that are old enough can change into different pokemon. An evolved form of themselves. I'm an evolved pokemon and so is Sam. When you evolve, your appearance changes, you get new abilities, and for some pokemon, like us, your type changes."

"What are types?" I ask.

"Well, types are . . . um . . . it's kind of hard to explain. It's like a certain element or power that each pokemon has. For example, there's water, fire, grass, electric, rock, ice, ghost, psychic, and lots more. I'm a fire type. I can do stuff with fire. See, watch this."

Mom opens her mouth and shoots out a jet of fire. I jump back. Luckily, we're walking through a meadow, so the fire doesn't hit anything.

"Wow, Mom!" I exclaim. "That's so cool! Can we do that?"

"No, Leone," she says. "You can't do that. See, the thing is, you two aren't fire types."

"How is that possible?" Raina asks. "If you're our mom, shouldn't we be the same type as you?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Mom says. "When some pokemon evolve they change types. I'm an evolved pokemon and you two aren't. I used to be a normal-type eevee, like both of you. Then, I evolved into a fire-type flareon."

"Oh, so when we evolve, we'll be able to shoot fire from our mouths!" I got it now.

"Well, actually, eevees are the luckiest pokemon, because they can evolve into seven different pokemon."

"Really? Cool! Tell us about each one!" Raina says.

"Well, there's jolteon, the electricity one. Then, there are fire-type flareons like me. There are vaporeons who control water. There's umbreons, the darkness evolution.

The opposite of umbreon is espeon. They're pokemon of light, a psychic-type. There's leafeon, the grass-type and glaceon, the ice-type."

I don't know which one sounds coolest. I know what Raina will be, though. Her little swimming episode revealed it all. Jolteon sounds cool. I'd be able to control electricity! I'm not so sure about being a flareon. Fire kind of scares me. I don't really like water, so I probably wouldn't be a vaporeon. I wasn't so sure what you could do with psychic powers or darkness or grass. Glaceon might be cool, to use ice. Suddenly, I remember something.

"Hey, Mom," I ask. "What does any of this have to do with where we're going?

"I was just getting to that," she says. "We're going to a place where eevees learn about each evolution, choose which they want to be, evolve, and train with their new powers. It's a really fun place. I think you'll like it."

"Cool! So we're going somewhere to evolve? Are we almost there?" Raina asks excitedly.

"We're close," Mom responds. "I can't wait to see my old friends and my sister Kora and her children."

"We have an aunt?" I ask. "And cousins?"

"Yep. Kora is a vaporeon. She has five kits. I have a brother with kids, too."

Wow! I can't wait to get there. I'm super excited. We keep walking and we cross a big meadow. Eventually, we come to a forest. I've never been in a forest before. Of course, I've seen trees before, but never so closely packed together.

"We're really close now," Mom says. "We just have to reach the middle of this forest."

It's darker in the forest. The dark shrouds of the trees keep almost all light from reaching the forest floor. Only small spots of dappled light escape the heavy foliage. It's kind of spooky walking through that forest. I hope the place we're going is lighter. All of a sudden, a murkow swoops down out of nowhere, letting out a raucous cry. Raina squeals, Mom surrounds herself with a circle of fire and I . . . look down on them? The murkrow was gone. It hadn't had any bad intentions, but it had startled us. Anything can scare you when you're walking through dark woods. Raina opens one eye, peeking around to make sure it was really gone. Mom lets her fire die down. I realize, in my panic, I had quick climbed a tree. It was really word. I don't know how I did it. I hadn't even thought about it, I just shot up.

"Leone?" Mom calls, looking around.

"Up here, Mom," I call down.

"Leone!" Mom says, looking startled. "How in the world did you get up there?"

"I have no idea!"

Mom smiles and shakes her head. "Can you get down?"

"I don't know how!"

"Just jump. But be really, really careful!" She tells me.

Jump? How can I jump? I look down. I'm pretty high up. I guess I should get it over with quickly . . . Relying on my instincts, I jump from the branch I'm on to one below it, that goes out farthest out from the tree. I scurry along it and, when I reach the end, I jump off and land lightly on my feet. Wow! That's easier than I thought it would be! Jumping through the treetops and falling through the air feels great! It's not scary at all! I feel like doing the whole thing over again.

"Wow, Leone! That was so cool!" Raina gushes.

"Leone, you're a natural acrobat," Mom says.

"Hey, Mom," I ask. "Since I can climb trees so well, does that mean I might be good at Leafeon?

"You could be," she says.

Hmm . . . Leafeon. Sounds okay. I wonder what grass-types can do. It was really starting to get dark out now.

"How would you two feel about finding somewhere comfortable and just sleeping here?" Mom asks. "We can find somewhere we can see the sky and sleep under the stars. Besides, it would be better to get there in the morning."

"Sure," I say.

"I don't know," Raina says worriedly. "I can't really see anything. It's so dark!"

"It's not that dark, Raina. You can still see everything," I say.

"Are you kidding? It's pitch black!" Raina says, as her voice rises.

"You're overreacting," I say. "I'll prove to you that it's not that dark. By that big smooth gray boulder, over to the left and in front there's a big oak tree. On the fourth branch from the bottom, a small Nincada is lying on it's back with a pile of leaves on top of it. And that's how not dark it is," I finish smugly.

"You totally made that up!" Raina protests. "There's no way you can even see a big tree in this blackness!"

"I did not make that up!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Listen, you two," Mom intervenes. "You know how umbreon, one of the eevee evolutions, is a dark pokemon. Well, Leone's just showing umbreon potential. Just like you showed vaporeon potential, Raina."

"Why does Leone get two potential and I only get one?" Raina pouts.

"I'm sure both of you have other potentials. They just haven't had a chance to show themselves yet. And that's why we have the ceremony," She reassures her.

Raina looks slightly appeased.

"Okay, time for little eevees to go to bed," Mom says. "And their mother, too," she adds as an afterthought.

"We're not little anymore, Mommy." Raina says. "And what about dinner? I haven't eaten since lunch!"

As if to make her point, my stomach growls loudly.

Mom laughs. "I'll go and catch something for you. But before I leave, I'll make you a nice warm fire. Go and find some dry leaves and twigs to start the fire with."

I search around for leaves and twigs for a couple of minutes. When we bring back what we found, Mom puts them in a pile and breaths fire on them. She tells us to go get some sticks to keep the little fire going. After we had gathered the sticks, Mom comes back carrying a pidgey, a buneary, and something else I didn't recognize.

"What's that Mom?" I ask.

"It's called a pachirisu. They live in forests, not meadows, so you wouldn't have seen one before. Be careful eating one, though. They can still be a bit electric," she explains.

"So, who wants which?" Mom asks.

"I want the pidgey," I say.

"I want the pachi-what's-it-called!" Raina says.

"Pachirisu," Mom corrects.

"Whatever," Raina says.

"Well, I guess that leaves me with the buneary. Alright! Dig in!"

I pluck the feathers off of the pidgey and sink my teeth into it. It tastes delicious! I ravenously chomp away at it. Suddenly, I hear Raina let out a cry of pain. I whirl around.

"What is it?" I ask sharply.

"My food zapped me!" Raina says, looking at her pachirisu incredulously. "And it hurt too!" Raina looks at the food like it betrayed her.

"I warned you, Raina," Mom says. "I'll trade with you if you want."

Mom nudges the buneary over to Raina with her nose. Raina warily slides the pachirisu over to Mom with her paw. She seems to be on the lookout for it to shock her again. When we had all finished eating, I lay down in a soft patch of moss I found. Raina curled up beside me and Mom stretched out by the fire. It wasn't long before the last embers glowed over a mother flareon and her two small eevees completely asleep under the stars.

**Wow, this was a really long one. Told you they weren't consistent. I guess I just didn't know when to cut this one off. It's almost the same amount of words as the entire rest of the story. Well, anyway, I hope you liked it!**


	6. Greetings and Meetings

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon. *****Sigh***** **

**Hey everybody (or ****anybody that actually reads this)! I'm so, so sorry for never updating; I just get so busy! And ****U7VK7VOVV7V**** thanks for following my story so loyally and I'll get back to you soon about an idea for a story. I just want to ask my friend Gen. She and I often come up with story ideas together. By the way, I have to give her a big portion of credit for this story. Also, let's pretend eeveelution is a word, because I'm going to be using it a lot (eevee evolution). Anyway, here's my next chapter.**

I wake up to a cool, sunny morning. Sunlight filters through the leaves, dappling the ground with fluorescent green. I jump to my feet, excitement flooding through me. We're going to the ceremony now! Mom is already awake, and she has food: two bidoofs and a starly. I jump on Raina. She springs up, looking around wildly. Then she glares at me.

"What was that for?" she asks angrily.

I shrug. "I needed to wake you up."

"So you jumped on me?"

"Yeah."

She shakes her head, irritated. I look over at Mom.

"So, are we going?" I ask.

"You two need to eat first," she replies, shaking her head.

She passes me the starly, knowing how much I like birds, but I'm too excited to enjoy it and I gulp it down as fast as I can. While Mom and Raina finish their bidoofs, I wait impatiently, hopping from paw to paw. When they _finally _finish, we start walking slowly towards the ceremony. Raina and I keep running ahead and then hopping around anxiously waiting for Mom to catch up. After a little while, I see a clearing up ahead.

"Raina, look!" I cry. I run towards the clearing.

When Raina and I emerge from the forest, I draw in my breath sharply and Raina gasps. The clearing is huge! At the far end, there is a big tree with a huge hole in the middle of it. Connected to the tree, on the same level as the hole, there's a big platform made out of boars of wood. Scattered around the clearing are about seventeen or eighteen trees. Each tree has two holes in it. One on ground level and one above with crooked, run-down, wooden stairs leading up to it (probably carved by a big pokemon with sharp claws). A curtain of long grass covers each opening. These are high-quality dens!

There are already seven or eight eevee families milling about in the clearing. I spot one blue eeveelution with a long fish tail who can only be a vaporeon. I see another eeveelution that's covered in leaves who has to be a leafeon.

"C'mon," Mom said. "Let's go sign in." We follow her over to a no-nonsense looking yellow eeveelution.

"What eeveelution is that, Mommy?" Raina asks.

"She's a jolteon, Raina," Mom says.

"Hello," Mom says to the jolteon. "We're here to sign in"

The jolteon dips her paw in a wooden bowl filled to the top with something that looks and smells like oran berry juice.

"Name?" she asks.

"Fiona," Mom says.

"And you are a female flareon?"

"Yes."

"Isn't it kind of obvious?" Raina whispers to me. I shrug. She probably has to ask even if she already knows the answer.

"Would you like to volunteer for Flareon Day?" The jolteon asks.

"Yes, please," Mom answers. I wonder what Flareon Day is.

"And your children?" The jolteon enquires.

"This is my son Leone and my daughter Raina," Mom says and spells it out for her.

The jolteon is quickly writing down everything Mom says with her ink-stained paw.

"Alright, that's all we need. You're all signed in. We hope you enjoy being here. Your tree is #9, bottom floor. The opening speech is tomorrow. We will see you there."

"Thank you," Mom says. "You want to go see our tree?" She asks us.

"Yeah!" I say.

"Let's go!" Raina says.

Mom leads the way over to a tree and walks through the grass curtain.

"I wish we'd been on the top," I say.

"I don't," Raina replies. "I don't like being up high."

Inside the tree are three rooms. The first room is covered in soft moss and has two entrances into other rooms. The other two rooms have mareep's wool covering the whole floor. These are the rooms for sleeping. I figure Mom will sleep in one and Raina and I will sleep in the other. I love the soft moss in the first room. It was much nicer than the hard earth floor back at home. I went into the other room. I don't like the mareep's wool as much. It was too fluffy and scratchy; I definitely prefer our starly down at home. I'd rather sleep in the first room on the sweet-smelling moss.

"Well, now that you've seen our den," Mom says. "I want to go show you off to all my friends and family."

I groan.

"Oh come on, Leone," Raina encourages. "It'll be fun! We'll get to see all the eeveelutions and meet other eevees, too!"

Mom leads the way out of the den and into the clearing. "Hmm. . . Where to go first?" she wonders out loud. "Oh, there's Kora!" She rushes over to meet an eeveelution like the blue one I saw before. "Kora, I haven't seen you in ages!" She exclaims as we catch up.

"Is that a vaporeon, Mommy?" Raina asks.

"Yes, kids, this is my sister Kora. She's your aunt," Mom tells us.

"These are your kits?" Aunt Kora asks Mom.

"Uhuh, this is Raina and this is Leone. Aren't they adorable?"

"Mom!" I protest.

"What about your kits?" Mom asks, looking at the five eevees clustered behind Aunt Kora.

"Well, my first one is Wolf. Then there's Stanley and River. My little girl, Mina, and my youngest, Cory," Aunt Kora responds.

"Aaw! They're so-" Then Mom pauses, staring past Aunt Kora. "Hey, what's Max doing here? I thought it was mothers only."

Aunt Kora turns around. "I'm not sure." Then she calls out, "Hey, Max!" A jolteon like the one Mom talked to before turns toward us. However, this time it's a male and he has four kits with him. He comes over to meet us.

"Max, what are you doing here?" Mom asks. "Shouldn't the mother of your kits be here?"

"Unfortunately, my mate passed away," Max responds. "And the rules about no males here have gotten more lenient. Some fathers have started to come as well as mothers."

Raina and I are just standing there as all this happens, wondering whom this guys is. Suddenly, Mom seems to remember us and tells us that he is her and Kora's brother and our uncle. Aunt Kora and Uncle Max are still talking and he introduces his four sons, Aaron, Alex, Anthony, and Adam.

"Why do their names all start with 'A'?" Raina asks, with all her usual tact.

Max turns to her and tells her that he named them that because their mother's name started with 'A' and she died giving birth to them.

"Oh," Raina says quietly.

As we all stand around awkwardly, Mom says that she's going to take us to meet her other friends. After that it was a whirlwind of meeting Mom's old friends and their kits. I met my dad's sister, an espeon named Violet, and her two boys, Riley and Willy. I also met my dad's brother Matt, who, unlike my dad, was nice and had insisted on coming to the ceremony with his mate Kelly and their two kits Julia and Chris. The same happened for Mom's old friends Ryan and Lauren who had both insisted on accompanying their daughter Lila. After all this, Mom wanted to keep going around seeing old friends, but Raina and I were tired and wanted to go back to our tree.

That night, as I settle in to the scratchy mareep's wool I can't fall asleep for a long time. I stay awake thinking about what's going to happen tomorrow when this whole thing really starts. I can't wait to find out what I'm good at. As I listen to the soothing sound of Raina's breathing, I drift off to join her in sleep.

**Sorry, I know that chapter was kind of boring. It was even boring to write it, but I had to get those characters in there. That wasn't even all of them, but I didn't want to push it. We'll meet more important people tomorrow in Eevee School and I promise it will be more interesting. -Alli**


End file.
